The wedding quilt!

Oh my!  I wrote about it on Saturday that I was going to end up making a wedding quilt for a couple in a country in Central Asia. I didn't realize I was going to, though, until Friday, late morning.

I decided to chronicle my progress so you can see how it's happening.

I've been trying to notice when and how long things are taking me so you can see.

Friday - thought about what I wanted to do - 

Saturday morning - I finished up the third of the girls' quilts, so it left me free to focus on a wedding quilt. I had the plan decided by about 2 pm - when I started choosing fabrics and deciding on a final plan -  or at least the start of the final plan.  By that I meant, I knew I had to get started - but I could change any border I wanted to until I actually did it!

I decided to do a medallion type quilt - knowing that it could be very special and I thought I could get it done quickly. I designed each round with a consideration that I needed to finish it quickly in mind!

So, I started on Saturday afternoon about 3 pm-ish. I  knew I wanted to close the chains instead of making it as shown above.

So, I worked on the middle heart, and then the surrounding section until by Sat. evening when I went to bed I had this much done - 

But because I had tweaked the pattern and closed the chains off, I wanted to add a little space between the chains and the half square triangle row, so I redid the design a bit and made it this - 

I soon realized, however, that that wasn't going to work, so back to the computer program to redo the next couple of borders - had to make sure everything fit and was do-able.  For example, I didn't want to be dealing with 4 1/4" half square triangles!

So now it was this - 

I was still trying to decide about some of the colors but I was tired and I thought that I could finish this quilt by Tuesday night if I reached certain goals. My goal for Saturday night was reached with the above picture.

I knew I wouldn't get back to it until Sunday mid afternoon, however, due to other responsibilities! 

So, here's what happened on Sunday - this will get you caught up with where I am.

Sunday afternoon.  I hit the ground sewing! I added the light border to the outside of the middle and by 3 pm this is where I was - 

Then, I added the HST triangle border and that was on by 5:05 pm

I knew I was working against the clock because I needed to make some decisions about the next three borders in the sunlight. So I actually decided on them at about 4 pm on Sunday - not knowing how long everything as going to take.

I did finish these by Sunday, 7 pm. This is the plan and what I drew so you can see

I wanted to finish the 20 checkerboard blocks needed for the next border - so I went ahead and did that - I had sewn the strip sets on Sat. evening when I was tired but hadn't done anything with them except cut them up. I set them aside to actually make the little checkerboard sections.

Here is the blue fabric close up between the two smaller borders. There are actually three blues in that fabric - a pale blue, a lighter one that is sort of a turquoise look and a navy. I decided to use it:

Then, because I have a couple more borders to do, but they involve quite a bit of piecing and cutting, but I was tired, by about 7:30 I stopped, went to the garden area and turned off my water which was on the pumpkins, took my shower and returned to work on checkerboard blocks - 

I had the 20 blocks done by 8:40. I took a little break and then decided to stop sewing for the day.  

But I needed to CUT some for tomorrow.

I began cutting the blues for the hearts and the lights for the snowballs on the heart blocks. I also cut the light squares for the final 4" border. Here are those pieces:

I've now tweaked the pattern one more time and I believe this is the final layout - if not the layout of the colors - I think the blocks are at least the right size and the right number - 

Here is the plan without the lines - I am always a little astonished how similar the plan looks to the final project - esp. since I don't usually scan my fabrics and put them into the program. I use the default colors and fabrics they have.

And that's where I am. I need to have the top completely finished by Monday night, so that Tuesday right after breakfast I can sandwich it and start quilting it. 

I do have at least one other obligation that will take about 3 hours of my time on Monday, so I can't spend all day on it! 

I'll keep you posted!

And that's what's been happening in my part of the world - with regards to quilting, anyway!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store!